


Warm

by lzclotho



Series: SQ tumblr one-shots [11]
Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2013-11-23
Packaged: 2018-01-02 10:53:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1055923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lzclotho/pseuds/lzclotho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma is fished from the Neverland Ocean and discovers the meaning of warm. Alternative version of scene from season 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warm

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from tumblr: leftsideofthecouch asked: Warm

  
Emma couldn’t stop shivering; she was conscious of the fact that she was soaked, covered in deadweight clothes that were also soaking wet. She remembered landing in the ocean and, because of the rasp of her throat when she cried out as someone moved her, Emma knew she’d swallowed a good several gallons of the salty stuff.

"Shh," a female voice drifted into her waterlogged hearing and sounded so very far away, but the arms around her felt female as well. Her body shook violently, trying its damnedest to restart her internal heater.

"Ssss…" she tried to speak, but her brain-to-mouth connection was apparently still offline. 

"Shh," came the feminine voice again. It had to be Snow. Though Emma thought her mother’s voice would sound a lot more frantic. After all, Emma as her only child had just very nearly been drowned by the mermaids of Neverland.

A heavy weight suddenly pressed against the center of her chest. It felt like she being slammed into with a burning skillet; Emma thrashed, this time hoping to get away from the sensation that was threatening to stop her breathing.

"Ah!" She jolted again. The heat seemed to even out, or lessen in intensity, and Emma now fought to curl around it. "Uhn…" Even though whatever was causing the heat still felt heavy, the source of heat was so, so welcome. "Fffff…."

She thrashed until she felt she was banging her head against her knees. Both hurt, but the sensations were disconnected.

"Shhh…be still."

Emma tried to open her eyes, but the world was only a void, filled with only the vaguest shapes. Slowly, the heat seemed to spread, like a cloak, but inside her body. Gradually the pressure in her chest eased off almost entirely. The muscles in her back stopped seizing. Then the muscles in her shoulders and her thighs. And finally, the muscles in her arms and hands.

Finally lassitude overtook her limbs. The source of warmth shifted, it seemed, from inside to outside.

"Mmm…" Emma rolled into the body she could now sense next to her head and chest. There were legs under her back. Opening her eyes, now able to separate the world into colors, she found herself staring at layers of black and purple and blue. Screwing her eyes shut tightly, Emma nevertheless turned her face into the softness of fabric and bountiful flesh and sighed, feeling her own breath reflect back warm against her face.

Gradually able to distinguish better detail, Emma now felt the individual fingers of hands moving up and down her arms, and onto her back, pressing and circling, soothing and strong. She turned her head and blinked open her eyes, feeling her body was almost normal temperature. Certainly the bone-crunching aches were almost a memory. How long had she been laying on the deck of the ship in her mother’s arms?

There was a silhouette against the blue cloudless sky. Slowly the shadows resolved into features. Emma blinked, certain she was seeing things.

Dark brown eyes in an olive-toned face. Her brow knit in confusion. She croaked out, “Re…gi…na?”

"Emma!" Snow’s voice sounded sharp and sudden and Emma felt her back and neck protest as she snapped toward the sound with alarm.

As she was transferred from Regina’s hold to her mother’s there on the Jolly Roger deck, the only thing Emma could think was how much she missed the warmth.

 


End file.
